Rare Royal Names for Boys

08 Sunday Sep 2013

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alphanumeric names, anagram names, Anglo-Saxon names, Arthurian names, Biblical names, birth notices, classic names, Danish names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, German names, germanic names, Greek names, hebrew names, Latin names, middle names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names of months, nicknames, Old English names, popular names, rare names, Roman names, royal names, saints names, Scottish names, stage names, surname names, unisex names

Alastair

Alastair Windsor was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria through his father, and a great-great-grandson of Victoria through his mother. Although born a prince, he was stripped of his royal titles while still a toddler, after the regulations were tightened up. Alastair went into the army, and died during World War II on active service, in unconventional circumstances. He had been sent to Canada as aide-de-camp to the Governor General, who was a relation of his. Both his regiment and the Governor General had rejected him as incompetent, and he fell out of a window while drunk. It can get very cold in Canada, and Alastair succumbed to hypothermia overnight. Alastair is the Anglicised form of Alasdair, a Scottish form of Alexander. Alasdair Mòr Mac Dòmhnaill is the ancestor of the Clan MacAlister. I think Alastair very handsome, and in a country where Lachlan and Hamish are common, it doesn’t seem out of place. If the alas at the start bothers you, it can also be spelled the more common Alistair.

Athelstan

Although there had been many English kings before him, Athelstan the Glorious was the first ruler of all England, and the first who can be called king of the English. He was the grandson of Alfred the Great, and like his grandfather, had a reputation as a man of great intelligence and justice. His household was a centre for learning, he created the most centralised government England had yet had, maintained social order, encouraged literature, was an unbeaten military leader, and a key player in international affairs. He gets rave reviews from medieval historians, and even foreign writers of his time were eager to sing his praises. He is a king worthy of admiration, yet while the name Alfred was successfully revived and is still used now, Athelstan went out of use after the Norman Conquest, and remains extremely rare. Just doesn’t seem fair, does it? Athelstan is the modern form of the Anglo-Saxon name Æþelstan, meaning “noble stone”; it was very common amongst Anglo-Saxon royalty and nobility, and there are quite a few other kings with the name. I admit it does seem a little unwieldy, but it comes with the nickname Stan.

August

August was the second name of Prince Ernst August, a great-great grandson of George III and cousin of George V. As a member of the Hanoverian family, he was born a prince of Britain and Ireland, but during World War I, anti-German sentiment convinced the British royal family to strip the titles from their German relatives. However, the Hanoverians didn’t consider themselves bound by British rules, and continued to call themselves princes and princesses. To this day, the Hanoverians ask the British monarch for permission to marry, like other royals. It’s a bit of an odd situation. Prince Ernst was the last reigning monarch of the House of Hanover, and his marriage to Princess Victoria of Prussia the last large gathering of European royals before World War I broke out – he was very much the end of an era. August is the German form of Augustus, a traditional middle name in the Hanoverian royal family which continues to be handed down. You can also see August as after the month, in which case it can be given to both sexes.

Axel

Axel was the final middle name of Prince Georg Wilhelm Ernst August Friedrich Axel, the son of Prince Ernst August. He married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, who was Prince Philip’s sister. The name Axel is the medieval Danish form of the Hebrew name Absalom. In the Old Testament, Absalom was a son of King David, staggeringly handsome and extremely charming. He rebelled against his father; it’s a pretty awful story involving incest, rape and murder, and not one of the most uplifting parts of the Bible. Absalom was killed when he got his head stuck in a tree, which is meant to be very ironic for some reason. To me the ironic part is his name means “my father is peace”, and he went to war against his father. Axel is not a popular name in Australia, but I feel as if it will be in a few years, based on how frequently I see it in birth notices – it is #164 in Victoria. Its use seems to be influenced by singer Axl Rose, whose stage name is famously an anagram.

Edmund

Edmund the Magnificent was half-brother to Athelstan the Glorious, and his successor to the throne. He only ruled for a few years before he was murdered, but in that short time he had important military victories in the north, established peace with Scotland, began reviving the monasteries and helped restore Louis IV to the throne of France. His great-grandson Edmund Ironsides fought valiantly against the Danes, and although ultimately defeated by King Canute, was a skilled and inspiring leader. Edmund is an Old English name meaning “rich protector”, and it was common amongst Anglo-Saxon royalty and nobility. Saint Edmund the Martyr was a King of East Anglia killed by the Danes, and was the patron saint of England until Saint George got the gig – there is a movement in East Anglia to reinstate him. Unlike many other Anglo-Saxon names, Edmund remained in use after the Conquest (probably because of the saint), and was even used in the royal family. It’s surprising how rare this name is compared to classic, popular Edward, but it’s a very handsome and noble one. Narnia fans will know it as the name of the treacherous Pevensie brother, who redeems himself and becomes a king of Narnia. Edmund “Ted” Gyngell is a recent celebrity baby, sometimes called Edmund the Magnificent after his namesake.

Emmanuel

Emmanuel was the final middle name of Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, otherwise known as Prince Albert. He married his cousin Victoria, who was the heir to the British throne at the time. Victoria had the choice of two cousins to wed, and chose Albert as the most handsome and charming. Queen Victoria was devoted to Albert, and he was a great support to her, holding quite a bit of power behind the throne. A progressive and liberal thinker, he helped bring in many reforms, set the example that monarchy must be above politics, and made a huge success of the Great Exhibition of 1851. He died while only in his early 40s, and Queen Victoria was devastated. She wore mourning for the rest of her days and withdrew from public life. Emmanuel is a Hebrew name meaning “God is with us”; the Old Testament gives the name in a prophecy, and the New Testament attached it to Jesus Christ as the Messiah. The name was common amongst European royalty, but less often used in Britain. In Australia it’s possibly best known as a surname, from guitarist Tommy Emmanuel.

Eustace

Eustace was the eldest son of King Stephen, and a great-grandson of William the Conqueror. Stephen had become king of England in a rather controversial way. After the heir to the throne had drowned in a disastrous shipwreck, Stephen had himself declared king by popular acclaim and was speedily crowned before anyone knew what was happening. The Empress Matilda had been next in line, but she was only a woman, and Stephen thought he should rule instead. Matilda didn’t agree, and their subsequent battle for power threw England into a state of anarchy for nearly two decades. Stephen had Eustace declared his co-king, but the church refused to ratify this, and nearly everyone was greatly relieved when the teenaged Eustace unexpectedly died. Generally perceived as rather a blot, his welcome demise allowed peace negotiations to go ahead. Even more conveniently, Stephen died the following year leaving Matilda’s son, Henry II, as ruler. Eustace is the English form of Greek Eustachios, meaning “rich crop”, a name chosen for himself by a 2^nd century Roman general and martyr who had been born Placidus, and is known as Saint Eustace; because of him, the name was common during the Middle Ages. This is another name from The Narnia Chronicles, because Eustace Scrubb was a rather annoying character who, like the saint, was converted from his previous beliefs. Hardly anybody seems to like the name Eustace, and even C.S. Lewis made fun of Eustace Scrubb’s name.

Leopold

Prince Leopold was a son of Queen Victoria, named after his great-uncle, Leopold I of Belgium, who had helped arrange the marriage of Victoria and Albert. Leopold’s birth is famous because his mother used chloroform during labour, giving the royal seal of approval for women to seek pain relief during childbirth. Prince Leopold inherited the family condition of haemophilia and also had mild epilepsy; he became a patron of the arts, literature and chess. He knew Alice Liddell, famous as the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice books (one of which revolves around chess), and some believe he considered marrying her, although others say it was her older sister Edith who was his intended wife. Queen Victoria arranged for him to marry Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, a distant cousin. Leopold’s marriage was happy, and he and Helena had a daughter named Alice, but he died as a result of haemophilia after only a few years. He passed away just before his son Charles was born. Alice inherited the haemophilia gene, and passed it on to her son Rupert, who also died young. Leopold is a Germanic name meaning “bold people”; it was common amongst German royalty. This rather grandiose name has popular Leo as the nickname.

Magnus

Magnus was a son of King Harold II and Edith the Fair, or Edith the Gentle Swan, sometimes (wrongly) called Edith Swan-neck. Harold and Edith were married in a traditional manner known as handfasting, and although Edith was regarded as Harold’s wife by regular people, and their children as princes and princesses, the clergy saw her only as his mistress because they hadn’t wed in a Christian ceremony. Harold did have another wife, also called Edith, but this was a marriage of political convenience, and not a love match as it was with Edith the Fair. According to legend, after Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings, only Edith the Fair could identify his body by markings she knew, so Harold was able to have a Christian burial. Magnus is a Latin name meaning “great”; Magnus Maximus was a 4^th century Western Roman Emperor who became important in British folklore and Welsh legend, and is part of the mythology of King Arthur. There are several saints named Magnus, and it was a traditional name in the royal families of Norway and Sweden. The name is often thought of as Scottish, and one of the Saints Magnus was from Scotland. This is a great name, rich in history and legend, strong and interesting, and a good alternative to Max.

Octavius

Prince Octavius was the thirteenth child of King George III, and doted upon by his adoring parents. At the age of four, he was inoculated against the smallpox virus, and as vaccination was still in its experimental stages, became ill and died, the last member of the British royal family to suffer from smallpox. The sudden death of the tiny prince caused his family immense grief, and during his later bouts of madness, King George even had hallucinations about Octavius. What made it harder for them was they had lost Octavius’ younger brother Alfred in exactly the same way six months previously. Octavius is a Roman name coming from the Latin for “eight”; Octavius was the eighth son of King George III. Octavius seems very hip – fresher than Atticus and Orlando, with a distinct feel of its own. It would be a good choice for an eighth child or grandchild, or someone born in August (the 8^th month) or October.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were August, Magnus, and Alastair, and their least favourite were Octavius, Athelstan and Eustace.

(Picture shows a portrait of Prince Albert and his royal family by Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Rare Royal Names for Girls

01 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 11 Comments

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Anglo-Saxon names, Christmas names, Danish names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, French names, germanic names, Greek names, honouring, Latin names, locational names, middle names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, names from television, nicknames, Old English names, Old Norse names, rare names, Roman names, royal names, saints names, scandinavian names, Star Trek

Royal babies have been on everyone’s mind lately, and we recently saw two babies born in the royal family within less than a month of each other.

Not only have been people been doing web searches for Prince George and Maud Windsor, they’ve been searching for royal baby names in general, uncommon royal names, and royal names that nobody else is using.

So here is a list of queens and princesses connected to English royal houses by either birth or marriage, whose names aren’t popular or common in Australia (although I can’t promise nobody else will use them).

Adeliza

Adeliza of Louvain married Henry I, and became queen of England. She was considered pretty, but didn’t manage to produce any royal heirs. However, after Henry’s death she re-married, and had seven children; she is an ancestor of many of the noble English families. William the Conqueror had a daughter called Adeliza, named after his sister – the name wasn’t uncommon amongst Norman-French aristocracy. Adeliza is a medieval English form of Adelais, a short form of Adelheidis, the original old Germanic form of Adelaide. It’s pronounced ad-uh-LEE-za. Although it doesn’t have any connection to the name Elizabeth, it looks like a combination of Adele and Eliza, and might feel like a way to honour relatives who have variants of these names. It’s rare, but doesn’t seem unfamiliar.

Berengaria

Berengaria of Navarre was Queen of England through her marriage to Richard I, “the Lionheart”. She is the only English queen never to set foot in the country, since she only visited England after her husband’s death, when she was no longer queen. Richard himself spent only a few months in England during his marriage, as he was busy Crusading. Richard and Berengaria never had any children, and it is not known if their marriage was ever consummated, as they spent so much time apart. Richard’s family seem to have liked her, and there are a few other royal English Berengarias, perhaps named after her. Berengaria was a traditional name amongst Spanish royalty, and is the feminine form of Berengar, an ancient Germanic name meaning “bear spear”. It is pronounced behr-en-GAR-ee-uh, and the name has been bestowed upon a planet in the Star Trek universe inhabited by dragon-like creatures. This doesn’t sound like any currently popular names, and the nickname Berry is appealing.

Christabel

Christabel was the middle name of Princess Alice, wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, a son of George V. Princess Alice was born into the aristocracy on both sides of her family, and was a direct descendant of Charles II, through an illegitimate line. She is related to Sarah, Duchess of York, the wife of Alice’s great-nephew, Prince Andrew. Just after the Second World War, Prince Henry was appointed Governor-General of Australia, and he and Princess Alice lived in Canberra for two years. The name Christabel is a combination of Christina with a -bel suffix, but Princess Alice was given this name because was born on December 25, and the name suggests Christmas bells. Her niece Princess Alexandra was also born on Christmas Day, and shares the middle name Christabel. Apart from the Christmas connection, this pretty name might seem like a good way to honour a Christine and an Isobel (for example) simultaneously.

Elfreda

Elfreda was one of the wives of Edgar I, and she was the first king’s wife to be crowned and anointed as Queen of England. Beautiful and powerful, she was unfortunately linked with the murder of her stepson Saint Edward the Martyr, and ever after appears in medieval history in the role of evil stepmother. Her own son, replacement to the martyred Edward, was Ethelred the Unready, only a child when he took the throne. Elfreda was a traditional name amongst Anglo-Saxon royalty, and Alfred the Great of Wessex had a daughter named Elfreda, an ancestor of Queen Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror; through Matilda, the monarchs of England are descendants of the House of Wessex. There is a Saint Elfreda, an Anglo-Saxon princess. Elfreda is a modern spelling of the Anglo-Saxon name Ælfþryð, meaning “elf strength”. The name went out of use after the Norman Conquest, but was revived in the 19^th century, although it never became popular. Freda would make a good nickname – unfortunately, sweet Elfie would probably be misheard as Alfie, leading to confusion.

Eugenie

Eugenie was the second name of Victoria Eugenie, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria who married Alfonso XIII and became Queen of Spain. Her grandson Juan Carlos I is the current king of Spain. Unfortunately, her marriage to Alfonso wasn’t particularly happy, and she didn’t enjoy great popularity with the Spanish people – she was greeted with an assassination attempt on her wedding day. After the Republicans gained power, Victoria Eugenie went into exile with the rest of the Spanish royal family. Queen Victoria Eugenie’s middle name was in honour of her godmother, Maria Eugenia “Eugénie” de Montijo, empress consort to Napoleon III. Eugénie was a member of the Spanish nobility, and after the defeat of the Second French Empire, she lived in England, where she became friendly with the British royal family. The name remains well-known because of Princess Eugenie of York, daughter of Prince Andrew, who was named after Victoria Eugenie. Eugenie is the Anglicisation of Eugénie, the French form of Eugenia, which is the feminine form of Greek Eugenius, meaning “well born, of noble birth”. This elegant name is said yoo-JEE-nee, and Gina or Genie could be used as nicknames.

Marina

Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark was a cousin of Prince Philip. Like her cousin, she married into the British royal family when she wed Prince George, the Duke of Kent, an uncle of Queen Elizabeth II; she was the last foreign-born princess to marry into the British royal family. Princess Marina was attractive and stylish, earning her a place in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, and her favourite shade of blue-green became known as “Marina blue”. Princess Marina’s mother was the grand-daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, and Marina may have been named after Princess Marina of Russia. Princess Marina and the Duke of Kent were married in 1934, and a year later, Swiss water-ski champ Marina Doria was born, which looks more than coincidental. Oddly enough, Marina Doria also became Princess Marina, when she married a prince of Naples. Marina’s name has been passed down to her grand-daughter, Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina Windsor, and I have seen a birth announcement for a Scarlett Marina this week. Marina is the feminine form of the Roman name Marinus, which may be from the Latin for “of the sea”. There are two saints named Marina, and it’s also the name Saint Margaret is known by in the Orthodox church. Marina is a very beautiful name, and familiar in Australia due to entertainer Marina Prior.

Melita

Princess Victoria Melita was a grand-daughter of both Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II, making her Princess Marina’s great-aunt. Her love life was one of great turmoil, because she fell in love with her cousin Kirill, Grand Duke of Russia, but was forced to marry her cousin Ernest, Grand Duke of Hesse instead. The marriage wasn’t a success, as Victoria Melita preferred Kirill, and Ernest preferred young boys. Soon after Victoria and Ernest ‘s divorce, Kirill was almost killed during the Russo-Japanese War, and this brush with death made him realise that nothing was more important than being with his true love. He defied his family, and married Victoria Melita, much to his parents’ rage and disgust. Although their marriage and family life was happy, the Russian Revolution and subsequent exile was a setback, and the couple rather naively supported the Nazi Party. More emotional pain followed for Victoria when Kirill was unfaithful to her, which she never got over. Her life contained some bitterness, but Victoria Melita’s middle name has a sweet meaning. Melita is the Latin name for the island of Malta, thought to come from its Greek name, Melite, meaning “sweet as honey”; Malta was famous for its honey production. This doesn’t sound out of place next to popular names like Mila and Layla, and would be a great way to honour Maltese ancestry; you could use Millie or Lita as nicknames.

Sibylla

Princess Sibylla (born Sibylle) was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria who married her second-cousin Prince Gustaf Adolf (known as “Edmund”) of Sweden; her son Carl XVI Gustaf is the current king of Sweden. The couple don’t seem to have been very popular in Sweden, being plagued by rumours of Nazi sympathising, of which there is no proof. Unfortunately, Sibylla did have quite a few relatives in the Nazi Party in Germany, who threw her a big fat Nazi wedding, and this can’t have been a help at soothing suspicions. The name Sibylla (or Sybilla) has been used amongst European royalty and nobility since the Middle Ages, and has been connected with the British royal family from early on. William the Conqueror’s son Robert was married to a Sybilla, and Henry I had an illegitimate daughter named Sybilla, who married Alexander I of Scotland. Sibylla is from the Greek word for a female prophet of the ancient world who uttered divine revelations in a state of frenzy; the word became sibyl in English. During the Middle Ages, it was thought that the Greek and Romans sybils had been precursors to Christian prophecy, and therefore gained respectability as a Christian concept and name. This name (and its variants), though uncommon, is quite trendy in Australia, being known from actress Sibylla Budd, and the heroine of My Brilliant Career, Sybylla Melvyn, whose name inspired feminist publishing house, Sybylla Press.

Sigrid

The splendidly-named Sigrid the Haughty was supposedly the wife of Sweyn Forkbeard, who ruled England before the Conquest, in the days when the Danish royal house held the throne. It’s not clear if Sigrid was her real name, because it seems that Sweyn’s wife was actually Polish rather than Scandinavian, and in fact we can’t be sure if “Sigrid the Haughty” even existed. She may well be a fictional character, but her story is compelling. Beautiful and proud, Sigrid was a woman of great political power, who tended to wreak terrible revenge on those who annoyed her, and is supposed to have burned two of her suitors to death to discourage others. It could be that this fascinating lady of legend was tacked on to a real Polish woman who married Sweyn, and became the mother of King Canute the Great. Sigrid is from the Old Norse name Sigríðr, meaning “beautiful victory”. This is another name familiar in Australia because of an actress – the very famous Sigrid Thornton. The usual nicknames are Siri and Sigi.

Thyra

Thyra was the daughter of Sigrid and Sweyn Forkbeard, the sister of Canute the Great. She was married to Godwin, the first Earl of Essex, the father of King Harold who fell at the Battle of Hastings. She didn’t live very long, and she and Godwin didn’t have any children together, so she’s rather a footnote in the history books. She may have been named after Thyra, the wife of King Gorm the Old of Denmark; they were the parents of Harald Bluetooth, the father of Sweyn Forkbeard. According to at least one source, Queen Thyra was English, the daughter of King Ethelred of Wessex. She was said to be a smart and sensible woman who led an army against the Germans, and was described as the “pride of Denmark”. According to legend, one of Thyra’s daughters was captured by trolls and carried off to their kingdom in the far north. Thyra is from the Old Norse name Þýri, derived from the name of the god Thor, and possibly meaning “Thor’s war”. The name is pronounced TEE-rah, and I think it’s attractive and contemporary-sounding, although pronunciation may be an issue, with people trying to say it THY-rah.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Marina, Adeliza, and Christabel, and their least favourite were Elfreda, Thyra, and Berengaria.

(Picture is a drawing of Queen Berengaria)

Upper Class Baby Names

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by A.O. in Your Questions Answered

≈ 17 Comments

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Anglo-Saxon names, birth registries, classic names, dog names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, flower names, Google, Greek names, hyphenated names, Latin names, Latinate names, middle names, name image, nature names, nicknames, popular names, rare names, retro names, royal baby names, royal names, Scottish names, surname names, underused classics, unisex names, vintage names

Class, baby names, and judgement thereof seems to be a topic under discussion everywhere at the moment. BRW magazine told us how to name our babies like a rich person, Wendy Harmer set high, perhaps unattainable standards for baby names, an American blogger told us how names are done in Old Blighty’s class system, and a random Devonian reality television contestant decided nobody’s baby names were good enough, not even hers. Perhaps the royal baby is the catalyst for all this reflection – he didn’t escape the scrutiny either; the reality TV contestant decided he had a “dog name”.

And then I checked my search engine stats this week, and found that someone had Googled what baby names do upper class australians use.

Strictly speaking, Australia doesn’t have an upper class, because we don’t have a hereditary aristocracy. It’s usual to consider the richest people of a country the de facto upper class, but when we talk of someone being “upper class”, it has connotations of more than mere possession of a large disposable income. Some of the richest families in Australia are from traditionally working class or middle class backgrounds – they’re just regular people with vast fortunes.

While Australia does have a class system, it’s a flattened-out one, with fewer social divisions, and a large middle ground. Class is more fluid and less structured here than some other places. Of course, that doesn’t mean we are free of all status markers and snobbery – including name snobbery.

So if we don’t have an upper class, do we have upper class baby names? I don’t think so, because any particular name is used by a wider variety of people than you might suppose. Although in our imaginations, poor people have children named Jaidyn and Tayylah, and rich people send Agatha and Lucius off to St Barnaby’s or the Kindergarten of Higher Consciousness, in real life it is a lot less stereotypical.

When you register your baby name, the registry doesn’t ask for your family tree or your bank balance. They won’t ever say, Look, I think Peregrine is out of your price range. Might I suggest something more affordable, like Cooper? All names are equal, because they cost the same amount to register. No matter how humble your circumstances, you can give your baby any name you want – elegant, serious, trendy, sassy, bold, or eye-raising.

And because all names are equal, they won’t make any difference to your own social position, or to your child’s. A poverty-stricken family won’t receive an invitation to join the Yacht Club just because their daughter is named Agatha, and a Jaidyn born into wealth will have just as privileged a life as if his name had been Lucius, and will be just as welcome at St Barnaby’s.

Although some people fret that their baby’s name needs to sound like a doctor, a judge, a professor, or a prime minister for them to succeed, in real life surgeons are named Kellee, chief justices are named Wayne, academics are named Tiffany and Brandy, and prime ministers are named Kevin. Not only does your name not indicate where you came from, it doesn’t indicate where you are going either.

However, it’s fair to say that some names have an upper class image. I don’t think Australia is significantly different from other English-speaking countries when it comes to what names may be perceived as upper class.

Names Which May Be Seen as Upper Class

Please note: This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few ideas as to what I think sounds “upper class”, what others may perceive as upper class, or that I have noticed upper-middle class people choosing. I am not recommending these styles of name, or suggesting you use them.

Classic English-style names eg Thomas and Lucy
Anglo-Saxon type names eg Alfred and Edith
Names from European royalty eg Leopold and Adelaide
Latin and Latinate names eg Rufus and Aurelia; Hugo and Miranda
Classical names eg Leander and Hermione
Retro names eg Arthur and Florence
So old-fashioned that they’re hip eg Reginald and Gertrude
Vintage-style nicknames as full names eg Monty and Lottie
Names that have remained in use while never becoming popular eg Theodore and Susannah
Uncommon Scottish-style names for boys eg Cormac and Fergus
Uncommon flower names for girls eg Dahlia and Saffron
Historical surname names for boys eg Forbes and Monash
Whimsical names eg Huckleberry and Tuppence (while putting the whimsical name in the middle is the prudently middle class thing to do)
Fashionable “arty” names eg Ziggy and Coco (strike me as more aspirational middle class for some reason)
Literary names eg Caspian and Evangeline (these definitely seem middle class, as the middle class is keenest on reading)

How Middle to Upper-Middle Class Australian People Tend to Judge Names

Please note: I am not suggesting you follow any of this advice. It is for information only.

They like names that are spelled the more commonly accepted way. People are really fussy about this for some reason, and even slight changes to a name can bring on eye-rolling.
Any name that looks or sounds recently “made up” is frowned upon (although it’s fine if it was created a long time ago and therefore has a history behind it).
If a name has several variations, the simpler one is usually considered more upper class than the more elaborate eg Isabel rather than Isabella, Alice rather than Alicia, Sophie rather than Sophia.
Classic and retro names are usually considered more upper class than modern classics. However, Sophia is a classic name and Sophie is a modern classic, yet Sophie is more upper class than Sophia – so this does have exceptions, or can be overwritten by another rule.
Hyphenated names for girls, like Emma-Rose or Ruby-Lee, are often viewed with suspicion. This could be because “double” names are elaborations by their very nature.
Masculine or unisex names on girls are generally considered downmarket, while a unisex or feminine-sounding name on a boy often has quite a bit of cachet. So Mackenzie on a girl = thumbs down, Mackenzie on a boy = thumbs up.
It is fashionable to show pride in your cultural heritage, so Lorenzo, Agnieszka, Tevita, Silka and Johannes can be more stylish than Laurence, Agnes, David, Cecilia and John.
Conversely, many people seem to think that using names from a culture that you don’t have any immediate tie to looks distasteful. I think it’s silly, but it seems to be a widespread idea.
One or two middle names are fine, but once you reach three or more middle names (and you’re not royalty), you are considered to have gone beyond the bounds of good taste. It’s a little arbitrary, but it does seem to be the rule.

Names Not Obviously One Class or Another

Many names that have been highly popular for a length of time – by their nature, popular names are “of the people”; it’s easier for a name to remain very popular if many groups of people use them. Names like Charlotte, William, Chloe and Lachlan could belong to almost anyone, and do.
Hickster names – those that are fashionable-sounding yet slightly countrified, like Mayella and Elroy. Even after reading the birth notices carefully, looking for clues as to which kind of families choose these names, I still don’t know.
Uncommon nature names – names like Leaf or Snow are hard to place, I think. I have seen these names on children from absolutely everywhere on the social spectrum.
Extremely rare or obscure but genuine names – due to the fact they are almost never heard of, they don’t have any social context to put them into. You may only meet one Harmon in your whole life – so how can you generalise about the name?

What names do you think have an upper class image? And do you think there is any such thing as an upper class name?

Celebrity Sibset: Wendy Harmer

17 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 4 Comments

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baby name advice, celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, choosing baby names, classic names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, honouring, Irish names, locational names, name popularity, popular names, products with human names, surname names

Wendy Harmer is a highly successful comedian, who for many years has entertained on stage, television and radio. She was the first woman in Australia to host her own comedy show, The Big Gig, in 1989, and for more than a decade she was co-host of a top-rating breakfast show on 2-Day FM, when she became one of the nation’s highest paid entertainers.

Wendy is a prolific and successful author, having written humour for adults, chick lit novels, teen fiction, kid’s books, two plays, and the libretto for an opera. Her best-selling children’s series, Pearlie the Fairy, has been turned into an animated TV show. She is also editor of The Hoopla, a women’s news and opinion site.

Wendy is married to Brendan Donohoe, and has two children. Her son is named Marley (aged about 15), and her daughter is named Maeve (aged about 13).

Wendy appears to be yet another star of radio with a bee-lined bonnet in regard to baby names, because she has written an article about them for The Hoopla. It’s one of those “names not to call your baby” lists, which I must admit I don’t usually care for, because they don’t seem to really be helpful to parents so much as bullying anyone who happens to have different tastes and opinions from yourself.

Interestingly, Rule Number 2 on the list states that you shouldn’t use a famous person’s surname as your child’s name. Her son is named after Bob Marley. Okaaaay. Number 4 is that you musn’t name all your children with same letter. Mmmmm.

This article is an “update” of an earlier one, where one of the pieces of advice was that the pronunciation of your child’s name should be clear from the way it is spelled. Even now, when the name is quite well-known, some people don’t know how to pronounce Maeve from its spelling, and think that it must be MAY-vee or mah-EEV.

I do notice that so often when parents criticise baby names, the same criticisms could be levelled at their own children’s names. The most obvious example is that rather ghastly woman who said that place names as baby names were lower-class, when her own daughter was named after a country in Asia. I guess we all have mother-blindness about our baby names, and I have been guilty of the same thing myself – it’s an easy trap to fall into, but luckily I didn’t do it on TV or anything.

When we come up with rules on naming babies which we ourselves cannot stick to, it may be a sign that the rules aren’t all that useful. Just a thought!

Wendy doesn’t like her own name, which peaked at #15 in the 1950s, when Wendy was born. Part of her disappointment is that her mother chose the name out of a knitting pattern book, when the layette she was knitting was called the “Wendy”. She imagined that she had been named after Wendy Darling from Peter Pan, so being named after a knitting pattern didn’t seem so special.

Wendy much prefers her father’s choice for her name, which was Claire, the name of her beloved great-aunt. In the 1950s, Claire was #224; it rose steeply in popularity during the 1960s and ’70s, and has been in the Top 100 since the 1980s.

Now I think that’s really useful naming advice taken from real life. It may not be the best idea to choose a baby name peaking in popularity and about to fall and become dated, or select one virtually at random.

A better choice could be a classic which is lower in popularity and about to start rising, to become very popular in the long-term future. And it’s probably preferable to honour a beloved family member than to name your baby after a product – it’s nice to have a name which has some significance.

Think about the name story you are going to pass on to your child – a knitting pattern clearly doesn’t cut it. And sometimes dad knows best.

PS Wendy did manage to give the name Claire to one of her characters, the heroine of her novel, Farewell My Ovaries.

(Picture of Wendy and her family taken some years ago at Uluru; photo from Body + Soul)

Famous Names: Aria and Delta

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by A.O. in Famous Names

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alphanumeric names, celebrity baby names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, geographical names, Greek names, historical records, Italian names, locational names, musical names, musical terms, name popularity, name trends, names from songs, names from television, nature names, nicknames, saints names, vocabulary names

The Australian music industry celebrated an important birthday a month ago, because July 10 this year marked thirty years since the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) began collating sales information from music stores. The ARIA charts developed from the Kent Music Report, and the first Australian charts began in the 1960s, collated by Go-Set magazine, the music “bible” of its time which later spawned Australian Rolling Stone, and whose weekly music columnist Ian “Molly” Meldrum would go on to host seminal music show Countdown.

The first single to top the ARIA charts way back in 1983 was Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, the first #1 album was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and the most consistently popular performer over the many years of her career has been Madonna. However, Kylie Minogue equalled Madonna for the most #1 singles (10), and was equal second with the Black Eyed Peas for most weeks (30) spent at #1 in the singles charts.

Pop singer Delta Goodrem’s debut album, Innocent Eyes, spent longer at #1 than any other Australian album at 29 weeks, and she is the first ever music artist to have five #1 singles from a debut album. Innocent Eyes went on to be the best-selling album of the 2000s. Delta played aspiring singer Nina Tucker on soapie Neighbours, where she sang Born to Try, scoring Delta her first #1 spot on the ARIA charts. She has won ten ARIA Awards, and all her albums have gone to #1, making her one of Australia’s best-selling female artists. Delta is currently a judge, coach and mentor on The Voice.

In music, an aria is a vocal piece performed by a singer, usually as part of a larger work. We often connect arias to opera, although they can be part of classical concert music too, and usually think of them as very beautiful and elaborate pieces of music that only an expert singer can do justice to.

Some famous arias are Ave Maria, O Sole Mio, La Donne e Mobile from Rigoletto, and Nessun Dorma from Turandot (if you think you don’t know them, click on the links to listen, and you’ll probably find that you have heard them before). In Italian, aria means “air”, and is from the Latin word for “atmosphere”.

As a girl’s name, Aria is usually said to be a modern English name. It’s hard to track it through historical records, as any Arias you find could easily be a misprint for Maria, so while there are hundreds of Arias in Australian records, with both English and Italian surnames, your guess is as good as mine whether they were really named Aria.

There is a Saint Aria, an obscure early Christian who was martyred in Rome, but her name seems to have been short for Ariadne.

Aria catapulted into the national Top 100 last year, debuting at #83, the second-highest rising name for girls in Australia, and possibly the highest, if we had access to all the data. The name has been popularised by the character of Aria Montgomery, from the Pretty Little Liars books and TV series, and young singer and actress Aria Wallace; it’s also been boosted by its similarity to other fashionable names, like Arya, Arianna, Ariel, Allira and Allegra. Musician Ash Grunwald welcomed a daughter named Aria earlier this year.

Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet; it’s based on a letter in several Semitic alphabets which is supposed to represent a door. The Greek letter is shaped like a triangle when capitalised, and it is for this reason that the landmass at the mouth of river became known as a “delta”. If you want to get geographically technical, it is wave-dominated deltas which tend to have this triangular form; the most obvious example is that of the River Nile, and it is the Nile Delta which was first given the name, and is the “original” delta.

The Mississippi Delta region is the area which lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, and includes parts of the states of Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. Here’s another geographical technicality – the Mississippi Delta isn’t actually a delta – it’s an alluvial plain. The Mississippi River Delta is 300 miles to the south, in Louisiana, where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico. Just in case you have, in this short space of time, due to my scintillating prose style, become obsessed with river deltas, the Mississippi River has a bird-foot delta, where long finger-like projections reach out into the sea, and isn’t actually delta-shaped in the least.

The Mississippi Delta (the region, not the actual river delta in Louisiana – gosh I hope all this geography isn’t getting too confusing) is associated with the very beginning of several genres of popular music, such as Delta blues and rock and roll. You can no doubt get yourself into some very stimulating arguments over whether Delta blues is significantly different to any other kind of blues, or just how rock and roll got started anyway, but the Mississippi Delta would be crazy not to cash in with tons of music festivals, and they’re not, so they do.

Rita Coolidge is an American singer who inspired the song Delta Lady, by her one-time boyfriend, singer-songwriter Leon Russell. I always assumed that the name came about because Ms Coolidge is from the Mississippi Delta, but – more geographical technicalities – she’s from Macon county in Tennessee, which isn’t in the Delta region. So we may be talking poetic license here rather than geographical technicalities, although from the song’s lyrics, Russell seems to be using delta as a metaphor for ladyparts (as in the erotica collection, Delta of Venus, by Anais Nin).

(Just as an aside, the faded southern belle of unsound mind in the song Delta Dawn, which became Helen Reddy’s first #1 hit, was from Brownsville in Tennessee, which prides itself on being the “heart of the Tennessee Delta”. Dawn was a real Delta Lady.)

It was the song Delta Lady which inspired Delta Goodrem’s parents to name their daughter Delta, so that is one possible source of the name, but you could see it as a geographic name, a nature name or an alphanumeric name as well. You can also see it as a musical name, because a major 7^th chord is sometimes called a Delta Chord.

There are many, many women named Delta in Australian historical records, dating back to the 19^th century, and it is currently #412 in Victoria.

So here’s two pretty, modern-sounding musical names for girls, both with an Australian focus. Cross-cultural Aria is much more on trend that Delta, and consequently more popular, yet Delta has a more solid history of use as a personal name. Which one do you like better?

POLL RESULTS: Aria received an approval rating of 78%, and Delta of 33%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOz6Mt2t084

Boys Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin – Part 2

04 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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Ancient Germanic names, animal names, astronomical names, Australian Aboriginal names, Chinese names, colour names, days of the week names, english names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Google, Hindi names, historical records, Indian names, locational names, middle names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, names from movies, names of weapons, nature names, nicknames, onomatopoeic names, rare names, unisex names

Bambam

Bambam as a person’s name might seem like an oddball suggestion, but although it would definitely be an unusual choice, I don’t think it’s an unfamiliar one either. For a start, there is Bamm Bamm Rubble from The Flintstones, first introduced as a cute blonde baby with superhuman strength. His name came from the fact that he would say Bamm bamm, and swing his club, to the general destruction of everything around him. Bam Bam is used as a man’s nickname, from American wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow to British DJ Bam Bam. There’s also skater Bam Margera, who gained his nickname from constantly running into walls as a toddler. I have seen a baby boy called Bambam – although that may have been a nickname. In English, bam bam is an onomatopoeic interjection, suggesting one thing repeatedly hitting or banging into another. In much the same way, in Nyungar (from south-west Western Australia), bam means “to hit”, and in Bundjalung (from northern New South Wales), bambam means “bruise, swelling”. However, in the Meriam language from the eastern Torres Strait Islands, bambam means “yellow”; in Indigenous art, yellow ochre is often used to represent the earth. It’s quirky, but Bambam is a rather lovable name.

Daku

Daku means “sand hill” in the extinct Diyari language; the Diyari people are from the South Australian desert, and thus very familiar with sand. Despite being generally used as a boys name in Australia, Daku is also a unisex name in India, and in Hindi it means “bandit”. Someone wrote in to the blog considering the name Daku for their son, but they never got back to me, so I don’t know whether they overcame family opposition to the name or not. This name reminds me a bit of Dakota, and it has the fashionable OO sound, such as Reuben and Jude; the name is pronounced (I think) DAK-oo. It would be a bold choice though, and I haven’t seen many boys with this name, although it can be found a few times in historical records.

Jardi

Jardi means “front” in the Ngadjumaja language; the Ngadjumaja people are from the Nullarbor Coast area of south-east Western Australia. I remember reading in the papers last year about a baby boy from Mudgee who has named Jardii, and his mother explained that his name was from the Wiradjuri language and means “first born son”. I wasn’t able to find that information for myself, but it occurred to me that “front” and “first” are similar in meaning, so Jardi also seemed like a good name for an eldest son. In the Jaminjung language from the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory, jardi means “to keep”, which also seems very positive. I found quite a few Indigenous boys and young men named either Jardi or Jardii, and I think it’s really attractive, with a similar sound to Jordie, the short form of Jordan.

Jiemba

Jiemba means “laughing star” in the language of the Wiradjuri people of central New South Wales. It refers to the morning star, or the planet Venus. (In some other Aboriginal languages, djimba simply means “star”). Astronomy was very important to the Wiradjuri, as with other Aboriginal societies, because stars and planets were used to tell the times and seasons, and this information was first given in early childhood. It is recorded that in the Wiradjuri in the 19^th century, the elders would teach the children the stories behind the stars (the constellations), while the old women would teach children to count stars, which they could do into the thousands using a particular system. This information comes from radical poet and journalist Mary Gilmore, who grew up in Wagga Wagga, and was given the name Jiemba by the Wiradjuri people. Despite it being given to a little girl, I have only seen Jiemba given to boys – most likely because it is said JIM-ba, and thus shortens to Jim or Jimmy. One of the Aboriginal men from the Sydney area first encountered by Europeans was named Jimbah, so it sounds quite masculine (this Jimbah may also have been Colebee).

Lue

Lue is a small village in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales. Its name means “chain of waterholes” in the local Dabee language – the Dabee are part of the Wiradjuri group. The village’s name is pronounced LOO-wee, which makes me think that this could be an Australian alternative to Louis or Louie. There are quite a number of people named Lue in Australian historical records – many of them are of Chinese ancestry, but there are some from the Lue area, suggesting that at least a few of them were named after the village.

Nullah

A nulla nulla, also known as a nullah or waddy, is an Aboriginal war club or hunting stick; the word comes from the extinct Darug language from the Port Jackson area of Sydney. A nullah is a heavy club which could be used in hand to hand combat, or used to stun prey; sometimes they were used to punish lawbreakers. In addition, these useful tools could be used to make fires, and grind ochre. This name is frequently Googled, because Nullah is the name of the young Aboriginal boy in Baz Luhrman’s 2008 epic, Australia, played by Brandon Walters. The film is set in the Northern territory, so the choice of Nullah for the character’s name is not meant to be authentic; I wonder if they chose it partly because it suggests the name of the Nullarbor Plain (Latin for “no trees”). Nullah is also a Hindi word for a narrow, steep-sided valley; in dry countries like Australia, these nullahs are commonly filled with brushwood, and when it rains heavily, they temporarily become streams. This could be another inspiration for the character’s name.

Omeo

Omeo is a town in Victoria which is in the East Gippsland, set high in the Great Dividing Range. Its name means “mountains, hills” in the local Gunaikurnai language, or one of its dialects, because it is set on a treeless plain on the fringes of the Snowy Mountains. There is evidence of human occupation of this region dating back around 20 000 years, and the first reported sighting by a European of Omeo was in 1832, by a naturalist on the slopes of the southern alps. It was his reports of fine grazing land which soon attracted pastoralists and squatters to the region. Gold was discovered in the 1850s, but Omeo’s isolation meant that it did not experience the massive boom of many goldfields towns – it did however, have the dubious distinction of being the roughest and most unruly place on the goldfields. Its first magistrate was Judge Browne, better known as author Rolf Boldrewood, who wrote of the area’s lawlessness in his novel, Robbery Under Arms. This name looks and sounds like Romeo without the R, which gives it recognisability as a name, although it also reminds me of Omo washing powder. Its goldfields history gives it a bit of a “wild west” feel; it seems a bit more bad boy than romantic Romeo. Omeo has had some use as a boy’s name in Australia, especially amongst people from Omeo itself, and was more often found in the middle.

Tanami

The Tanami Desert is in the Northern Territory, and is Australia’s most northerly desert. In the wet season, it rains heavily and even floods, but the high temperatures mean that most of it evaporates. Some parts of the Tanami do have wetlands though, and there is even a lake which has permanent water in it, so as deserts go, it’s on the slightly moist side. It is a refuge for several rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, making it a biologically important area. You can cross the desert on the Tanami Track, which is more than 1000 km long, and goes from Alice Springs to Halls Creek, in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. Tanami is a corruption of the local Walpiri name for the area, Chanamee, meaning “never die”, because the rock holes in a particular gully were said to never run dry of water, even in drought. When white people came here in the early twentieth century, they found to their dismay that this was not the case, so either the name was optimistic in nature, or the Indigenous people had a superior knowledge of obtaining water from the rock holes. I have seen Tanami occasionally on girls, but after seeing it given to a boy, I really like it as a male name. The pronunciation is TAN-uh-my, but the Aboriginal pronunciation would be more like TAN-uh-mee, so you could take your pick on how to say it.

Woden

Woden Valley is a district of the capital city of Canberra. The area is named after a homestead owned by Dr James Murray, which was built in 1837. In Aboriginal Place Names, Harold Koch suggests that the name of Dr Murray’s homestead may have been influenced by the word wadyan or wadhan, which means “possum” in several Indigenous languages, in an area stretching from the Monaro region right down to Omeo in Victoria. If so, then the spelling was altered to make it look like the name of the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic god Woden, whose name means “inspiration”; Dr Murray saw him as a god of wisdom. Woden was the chief god of the Germanic peoples, and is their equivalent of Odin. Anglo-Saxon royalty claimed that Woden was their ancestor, and he survives in English folklore as leader of the Wild Hunt, and perhaps even as Father Christmas. Of course, we unconsciously celebrate his special day once a week, on Wednesday (Woden’s day). With Odin being a rather hip name at present, Woden really doesn’t seem too strange, and this could be a way of celebrating Australian and English heritage together. There are a couple of men named Woden in Australian historical records, although it is more common as a middle name.

Yarramundi

Yarramundi is an outer suburb of Sydney which is a semi-rural area in the City of Hawkesbury. It is named after a famous Indigenous leader who was a member of the Boorooberongal clan of the Darug people, and a garadyi, or shaman – a healer, a man of great spiritual knowledge and power, and an enforcer of tribal law. Yarramundi’s son Colebee was the first Aboriginal person to receive a land grant, and his daughter Maria was the first Aboriginal child to be enrolled in a school for the education of Indigenous children; her marriage in 1824 was the first legally recognised union between an Aboriginal woman and a convict. Maria ended up being a successful land owner in Liverpool and Blacktown, and dozens of families in the area trace their ancestry back to Yarramundi. Yarramundi means “deep water”, and I saw a newspaper story about a baby boy named Yarramundi after this inspiring namesake.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Jardi, Lue, and Nullah, and their least favourite were Yarramundi, Omeo, and Bambam.

(Picture shows the Tanami Desert in northern Australia)

Girls Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin – Part 2

28 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

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My first lists of names from Aboriginal languages are the most popular articles on the blog, so it seemed time for another selection. These names are all ones which have been used as personal names in Australia. I have done my best to elucidate meaning and history as much as possible.

Alinta

Alinta means “flame” in one of the traditional languages of South Australia; it was published in a dictionary by the Royal Society of South Australia in 1891. The name was popularised in 1981 when it was featured in the award-winning mini-series Women of the Sun. Each episode portrayed fictionalised accounts of lives of Aboriginal women in Australian society through history, and the first was Alinta: The Flame. It shows first contact between an Aboriginal tribe and Europeans, when early settlers encounter a tribe while searching for grazing land. The tribe’s culture is threatened by the newcomers, and the tribe is wiped out. The only survivors are a woman named Alinta and her child; Alinta vows that her daughter will “carry the torch” for her culture. There are several businesses in Australia named Alinta, most notably a Western Australian energy company, one of the largest in Australia, and named with the Aboriginal meaning in mind. There is also an Australian-bred variety of strawberry called Alinta. It’s not a very unusual name here, and there are several young actresses with the name. Alinta is also used as a name in Romania, where it means “caress”.

Arika

Arika is a name from the Waka Waka people of south-east Queensland, meaning “blue water lily”. There are several species of blue water lily native to Queensland, and they are used as bush food, for all parts of the plant are edible. In Aboriginal mythology, water lilies are a gift from the Rainbow Serpent, and sometimes in Indigenous astronomy, small stars were seen as water lily bulbs. In the novel Book of Dreams by Traci Harding, the meaning of the name is translated, and it says that in the past, Aboriginal women named Arika were given the name Lily by white people – which suggests that Arika might be a good name to honour a great-grandma Lily. Australians named Arika include Indigenous artist Arika Waulu Onus, and Arika Errington, who works in Aboriginal health, and contacted the blog to tell us about her name. I saw several children and teens named Arika online, mostly from Queensland, so it seems as if this name could be today’s Nerida. Arika sounds a bit like Erica, and is an angram of the Japanese name Akira, while having a similar meaning to Lotus. Possible nicknames that occur to me are Ari and Riki.

Jedda

Jedda (1955) was the first Australian film in colour, the last film of famous director Charles Chauvel, and the first film to star two Aboriginal actors in leading roles. In the movie, Jedda is an Aboriginal girl raised from infancy by a white woman after her mother died giving birth to her. Although she is curious about her own culture, her adoptive mother forbids her from learning anything about it, with tragic consequences. The film was nominated for the main prize at Cannes, and was a commercial success in Australia. In the movie, the name Jedda means “little wild goose” – a forerunner of the chase she will engender. I am not sure if the meaning was invented for the film, or drew on local knowledge; Jedda certainly exists as an Aboriginal name in historical records before 1955. An Aboriginal lady told me that she understood the name Jedda (which was her daughter’s name) as “little child”, but she didn’t say what language that was from. This is reasonably well used as a girl’s name, being similar to Jenna and Jetta – but I have seen it on a boy, because it shortens to Jed, and is also a plant name, because jedda (Jedda multicaulis) is a native shrub.

Kalina

Kalina means “love” in the extinct Wemba-Wemba language of north-west Victoria and south-west New South Wales. It has often been used as a place name, street name, a name for businesses and organisations, and sometimes as a girl’s name in Australia, but I’m not sure whether it was used as a personal name by the Wemba-Wemba people. It is also a literary name, because Kalina is one of the brumbies in the Australian classic children’s series, The Silver Brumby, by Elyne Mitchell – although in this case, Kalina is a white stallion, and his name is understood to mean (in horse language) “marvellous beauty of frost on snow”. Kalina is also a Slavic name which means “cranberry bush”; in Romania it means “rowan tree”, and in Poland it means “virburnum bush”. This is a pretty cross-cultural name which has several attractive meanings, and seems very easy to wear, being similar to Karina, Katrina and Kalista.

Leumeah

Leumeah is an outer southern suburb of Sydney, in the Macarthur region. It was settled by John Warby, a convict explorer who was transported here in 1792. In 1802, Warby was given the job of protecting cattle roaming free south-west of Sydney. Here he befriended the Tharawal people who lived in the area, and learned some of their language. In 1816 he was granted land on which to build a house, barn and stables; the barn and stables are still standing – one of them is a restaurant and the other a motel. (Just to confuse things, the stables is called The Barn Restaurant). Warby named his farm Leumeah, which means “here I rest” in the Tharawal language, and this became the name of the suburb. It is pronounced LOO-mee-uh. I have seen one or two girls given this name, and it seems like an especially happy name for an Australian, as it came about from a rare case of friendship between Aborigines and European settlers. The sound of it is quite on trend, and Lulu could be a nickname.

Marlee

Marlee is a small town in mid-northern New South Wales, whose name means “elder tree” in the local Biripi language. Native Elderberry or Yellow Elderberry is Sambucus australasica; its berries are bush food and they are sweeter than the variety from the northern hemisphere. Marlee is a popular name for houses and streets, suggesting leafy abundance, and it is not uncommon as a girl’s name here. Marlee also means “swan” in the Nyungar language of Western Australia, so it has a nice meaning in two languages. It is a rare week when I don’t see a baby named Marli, Marlie, Mahli or Mali in the birth notices, and Marlee fits in perfectly – in fact there was a Marlee in this week’s birth announcements. You could see these names as attempts to “feminise” Marley, but they could just as easily be short forms of Marlene, Mahlia or Malia. Marlee seems like a great way to join this trend with a specifically Australian meaning.

Narelle

Queen Narelle was the wife of King Merriman (or Umbarra), an important elder of the Yuin people in the latter part of the 19^th century. The Yuin people are the traditional owners of the South Coast region of New South Wales, in the Bermagui area. Aboriginal people traditionally did not have kings or chiefs, and the title of “king” was given to certain elders by white people as a (misguided) mark of respect. There is a famous photo of Queen Narelle’s well-attended funeral taken around 1895, which shows black and white people mourning for her together, so it does seem as if Narelle and Merriman were able to form a bridge between cultures, or that relations in the 19^th century could be harmonious. You may see Narelle translated as “woman from the sea” in baby name books, but in fact the meaning isn’t known; it is pronounced nuh-REL. Narelle first charted in Australia in the 1920s at #362, and reached the Top 100 in the 1940s. It peaked in the 1950s at #50, and was out of the Top 100 in the 1970s. It hasn’t ranked since the 1980s or charted since the 1990s. The name took a dive in the late 1970s, when it featured on highly popular comedy series The Naked Vicar Show. Narelle was a slightly dim-witted, mildly tarty woman – hence the plummeting popularity of the name, which immediately lost all cachet. However, Narelle is actually a pretty name, and the TV show has long been off the air. It even fits in with the trend for -ell names for girls, and could have fashionable Nell or Nellie as the nickname. Names from the 1950s are predicted to make a comeback: could Narelle be one of them?

Nyah

Nyah is a small town in Victoria on the banks of the Murray River, pronounced NY-ah. It began as a utopian socialist community in the late 19^th century, but as utopian socialism went out of fashion, it lost the necessary government support, and it isn’t now any more utopian or socialist than the next country town. Its name means “this bend (of the river)” in the local Boorung language – the bend of the Murray River at Nyah was an important boundary marker for the Boorung people. The region around Nyah has several Indigenous sacred sites, and in the surrounding state forests, anthropologists have discovered many interesting artefacts of Aboriginal culture. I know of someone with this name, and it seems attractive and simple, similar in sound to popular names like Maya, while also a place name important to Indigenous heritage.

Talia

Talia is a small town on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia whose name means “near water” in one of the local languages – appropriately enough for a town by the sea. It may be from Wirangu, or one of its closely related languages. Talia has charted in Australia since the 1970s, which seems to follow its inclusion in Aboriginal Words and Place Names by Alexander Wyclif Reed (1965). It first ranked in the 1980s at #483, and hit its peak in 2009, when it joined the New South Wales Top 100 at #91. Since then it has rapidly declined, and is now #222. The variant spelling of Tahlia has been much more successful, which has been in the Top 100 since the 1990s, peaked in 2009 at #36, and is now #78. Tahlia may be more than an attempt to make clear the Australian pronunciation of Talia – it may also be to differentiate it from international names, because Talia is known as a girl’s name in several other cultures. Talia is a variant of the modern Hebrew name Talya, meaning “dew of God”, and the Italian form of the Greek name Thalia, meaning “blooming”. It can also be used as a short form of Natalia. Talia was the name of the princess in an Italian folk tale on which Sleeping Beauty was based. This is a pretty cross-cultural name with a specifically Australian meaning, and although it is less popular than Tahlia, that may make it more attractive to some parents.

Yindi

Yindi was the name of a ship, one of four that the Australian government presented to the navy of the Philippines as a gift in 1958. Each of them were given Aboriginal names taken from The Australian Language by Sidney J. Baker (1945). The first ship was the Yindi, whose name is translated as “sun”; in most Aboriginal cultures, the sun is female. Yindi also means “to descend” in the Yindjibarndi language of Western Australia, and the name may remind you of the Australian band Yothu Yindi, which means “child and mother” in the Yolngu language of the Northern Territory. I saw a baby girl named Yindi in a birth notice last year, and it struck me as a really stylish choice, which stands out from the crowd and has a sunny meaning.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Talia, Alinta, and Kalina, and their least favourite were Leumeah, Jedda, and Narelle.

(Photo shows Nymphaea gigantea – a species of blue water lily native to south-east Queensland; © Raimond Spekking / CC-BY-SA-4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Waltzing with … Layla

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by A.O. in Waltzing with ...

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Arabic names, fictional namesakes, name combinations, name history, name meaning, name popularity, name trends, names from songs, popular names, sibsets

This Tuesday is the start of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and considered the holiest of the year. During Ramadan, Muslims are expected to fast during daylight hours, and abstain from smoking and sexual relations between sunrise and sunset. They are also encouraged to donate to charity or do volunteer work, and to read the Qur’an.

Muslim history in Australia predates 1788, for traders and fishermen from Indonesia are believed to have had contact with Indigenous Australians hundreds of years before European settlement, leaving their mark in language, culture and even genetics on the peoples of northern Australia.

However, Muslim emigration is usually dated from the mid-19^th century, when Central Asians were brought here to work as camel-drivers in the desert – they were known as Afghans, although they were mostly from India. The train from Adelaide to Darwin is called The Ghan in their memory, and the first mosque was built in 1861 in South Australia for the “Afghan” community.

Immigration from Muslim countries increased during the 1970s, and today about 1.5 million Australians identify as Muslim, or 2.2% of the population. It is an ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse religious group, with Lebanese-Australian Muslims the largest group within it (although most Lebanese-Australians are Christian). Around half of Muslims in Australia live in Sydney.

The most blessed night during Ramadan is Laylat al-Qadr, which can be translated as Night of Destiny (August 3 this year). It commemorates the night when Muslims believe Allah revealed the Qur’an to the prophet Muhammad, and it is a night to pray for blessings and salvation.

Layla means “night” in Arabic. It is sometimes interpreted by Arabic writers as “one who works by night”, with connotations of matters which are kept hidden or secret. Others see it as a name describing a dark beauty, or suitable for someone born during the hours of night – or even for a girl born on Laylat al-Qadr.

The name Layla is prominent in Arabic literature because of a medieval love story (supposedly based on real events) whose title can be roughly translated as Crazy for Layla. According to the legend, Qays and Layla were from the same Arabian tribe, and fell in love. The smitten Qays began obsessively composing poems in his sweetheart’s honour, to the point where he gained a reputation as being not quite right in the head. As a result, he acquired the moniker Majnun (“madman”).

When Majnun asked for Layla’s hand in marriage, her father refused, because he didn’t want a poetry-mad nutter as a son-in-law, and married her off to someone more stable. Poor lovesick Majnun began wandering alone in the desert, and could occasionally be sighted muttering poems to himself or writing what was presumed to be more poetry in the sand with a stick. Layla became ill and eventually died; some said she had died of a broken heart. Majnun was found dead in the wilderness in 688, near Layla’s grave. His last poems were carved on a rock near Layla’s final resting place.

The story is best known from the work of the 12^th century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, who adapted it into a long narrative poem called Leyli o Majnun (“Layla and the Madman”). Nizami Gangavi’s poem is considered a literary masterpiece, and brings the story vividly to life. In his version, the lovers fell for each other while still in school, and were not permitted to marry because of a feud between their families – very much like Romeo and Juliet.

The romance was extremely popular, and mystics used it to illustrate spiritual truths, so that Majnun became a symbol not only for poets and lovers, but also for those seeking higher truths. Layla and Manjun are often referenced in literature, and the story has gained wide appeal in India, where it has inspired many films.

The story of Layla gained a new audience in 1970, when Eric Clapton’s song Layla was released. Based on his infatuation with model Pattie Boyd, then married to George Harrison, it uses the story of Layla and Majnun to illustrate madly despairing unrequited love. Another song from the same album, I Am Yours, quotes directly from Nizami Gunjavi. Unlike Layla and Majnun, Eric and Pattie did later wed, but the marriage didn’t last.

Layla has charted since the 1980s, when it debuted at #752. It was #353 for the 1990s, and #147 for the early 2000s. Layla entered the Top 100 in 2004, when it got to #98, and made the Top 50 in 2009, at #47. Currently it is #38 nationally, #28 in New South Wales, #42 in Victoria, #32 in Queensland, #32 in South Australia, #24 in Western Australia, #36 in Tasmania, and #35 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Layla has zoomed up the charts to become established as a popular girls name. Apart from its musical heritage, it fits in with the trend for girls name with an AY sound in them, such as Ava, Hayley and Kayla, and also with the L-L trend, such as that found in Lily, Lila and Lola. That means a Layla may be the only one in her class, but the other girls around her could have similar-sounding names.

Layla is pretty and simple with a nice meaning and a very romantic history, and it works well cross-culturally too. It’s popular, but its position has stabilised, so it’s not rocketing upwards any longer. If you have fallen deeply in love with the name Layla, then I don’t think anyone will think you are crazy for choosing it.

Name Combinations for Layla

Layla Carys, Layla Elise, Layla Jade, Layla Peri, Layla Scarlett, Layla Zoe

Brothers for Layla

Fabian, Jett, Ryder, Skandar, Tariq, Xavier

Sisters for Layla

Aaliyah, Evie, Jasmine, Sophie, Willow, Zara

Note: Middle names and sibling names partially based on real life examples

POLL RESULT: Layla received an approval rating of 94%, making it the highest-rated featured girls name of 2013. 34% of people liked it, and nobody hated it.

(Picture is of the cover of the album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, by Derek and the Dominoes)

Shortened Names for Boys

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by A.O. in Name Themes and Lists

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

African names, Arthurian names, birth notices, celebrity baby names, Chinese names, classic names, English idioms, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Finnish names, Frisian names, German names, Greek names, Irish names, Japanese names, Latin names, locational names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, names from movies, names from songs, names from television, nicknames, Old Norse names, polynesian names, popular names, scandinavian names, Shakespearean names, Swahili names, Swedish names, unisex names, US name popularity, vintage names, vocabulary words

Alfie

Alfie is a nickname for Alfred. It is most famous from the award-winning (and still emotionally shocking) 1966 movie Alfie, starring Michael Caine as the predatory Alfred “Alfie” Elkins. The theme song was sung by Cilla Black, who objected that Alfie sounded like a “dog name”, and suggested Tarquin instead. As it was too late to remake the entire movie, her views were dismissed. Alfred Elkins was the grandfather of the British “Lad”, and until recently, Alfie was a name we thought of as one that could stay on grandfather. It has been Top 100 in the UK since the late 1990s, one of the old geezer names rehabilitated as cute and cool. The insipid 2004 remake of Alfie, starring handsome Jude Law as the charming Cockney, gave Alfie a new image, and Alfie Allen plays cocky Theon in Game of Thrones (big sis Lily Allen wrote a song about him). Alfie follows on the heels of popular Archie, and is #201 in Victoria.

Bastian

Bastian is a German short form of Sebastian. The name became well known from Bastian Balthazar Bux, the main character in the fantasy novel, The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. Translated into English in the 1980s, it has been adapted into several films. In the story, Bastian is a lonely, neglected little boy who loves reading; he steals a book called The Neverending Story, and is gradually drawn into a world where make-believe becomes reality. Along the way, he not only has many adventures, but learns valuable lessons about life and love, and manages to rewrite his own story. Although he is the protagonist, he isn’t exactly its hero, which might explain why this name hasn’t taken off. It’s not only handsome, but sounds like the English word bastion – part of a castle’s defence structure, and figuratively, a person who defends a particular position.

Gus

Gus can be used as a short form of Augustus, August, Angus, Fergus, and even the Greek name Kostas, although in practice it often seems to be a nickname based on a person’s surname. The name might remind you of film director Gus Van Sant (who was named after his dad), or astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom, the second American in space, or of NRL expert Phil “Gus” Gould. You might think of Gus as a cowboy name, due to Texas Ranger Augustus “Gus” McCrae from Lonesome Dove, or as slightly geeky, due to Burton “Gus” Guster in Psych. The name seems to be often used for fictional animals, such as Walt Disney’s Gus Goose, and the mouse Octavius “Gus” in Cinderella (both these Guses are fat). Gus the Theatre Cat is a character from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats; he is frail and elderly, and his nickname is short for Asparagus. This vintage nickname is now very fashionable, and is #241 in Victoria.

Jonty

Jonty is a nickname for Jonathan, which seems to have originated as a full name in the United States during the 19th century, but is now more common in Britain and some Commonwealth countries. You may know the name from retired South African Test cricketer Jonathan “Jonty” Rhodes. Oddly enough, Jonty does not appear in the US data at all now, so if any babies were named Jonty last year, there were less than five of them. Jonty is #315 for boys in Victoria. Although Jonathan is a boy’s name without a feminine form, girls are sometimes called Jonty too, but not enough to show up in the data.

Kai

Kai is Scandinavian name which may be a Frisian short form of Gerhard, Nikolaus or Cornelius. It could also be a short form of the Frisian name Kaimbe, meaning “warrior”. Another possibility is that it could be short for the Latin name Caius, a variant of Gaius, whose meaning is not known. If so, it would be the Scandinavian equivalent of the English male name Kay, as in Sir Kay, who was the foster-brother of King Arthur. Or it could be a variant of the Frisian male name Kaye, which is said to come from the Old Norse word for “hen, chicken”. Or perhaps it is short for Kajetan, which comes from the Latin name Caietanus, meaning “from the town of Gaeta” (Gaeta is in central Italy). Kai can also be a girl’s name in Scandinavia, and this case it is a variant of Kaj, which is a Swedish pet form of Karin (short for either Katrina or Karolina) – to complicate things, Kaj is also a Finnish form of male Kai. That’s a lot of names Kai can be short for! Kai can be a full name in its own right, because it is also a unisex Polynesian name meaning “ocean”, and Kai has the same meaning in Japanese. Kai is a Chinese boy’s name which means “victory” in Mandarin, and in Swahili, it is a girl’s name meaning “loveable”, but this is pronounced KY-yee, and not the more familiar KY. Kai first joined the charts in the 1970s, debuting at #498. It has climbed steeply and fairly steadily, and is currently #61 nationally, #60 in New South Wales, #78 in Victoria, #64 in Queensland, #35 in Western Australia and #62 in the Australian Capital Territory. This is a fantastic little cross-cultural name which can be used for either sex, although it has only ever charted for boys in Australia.

Liam

Liam is short for Uilliam, the Irish form of William. Famous people named Liam include Irish actor Liam Neeson, actor Liam Hemsworth, brother to Chris, musician Liam Finn, son of Neil, journalist Liam Bartlett, AFL footballer Liam Picken, and Liam Payne from One Direction, credited with much of the name’s international success last year. Liam first charted in the 1950s, and first ranks in the 1960s, when it debuted at #318. I don’t know if this was a factor, but it was in the 1950s that popular Irish folk band the Clancy Brothers began their career, with Liam Clancy their best singer. By the 1980s, Liam was in the Top 100, making #82 for that decade. Liam really took off in the 1990s, when Liam Gallagher kept grabbing headlines for controversial reasons, and was #26 for the decade. Stable for years, it is currently #11 nationally, #13 in New South Wales, #15 in Victoria, #9 in Queensland, #15 in South Australia, #8 in Western Australia, #24 in Tasmania, #14 in the Northern Territory and #8 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Max

Max can be short for Maxmilian, Maximus, Maxwell, Malcolm, or any name starting with Max-. Although we think of Max as a male name, it could also be short for female names such as Maxine or Maximilienne, and just this year Perth businessman Zhenya Tsvetnenko welcomed a daughter named Max Alice. It is perhaps best known from the Mad Max films, where Mel Gibson originally played Max Rockatansky, a vigilante in a dystopian Australian future. One of Australia’s most successful movie franchises, it kick-started a national film industry and created an enduring Australian icon. Max is a classic name in Australia which has never left the charts. It was #188 in the 1900s, and arrived in the Top 100 in the 1930s, before promptly leaving it again the following decade. It reached its lowest point in the 1970s, at #411, and then skyrocketed during the 1980s – this was the period when the Mad Max films were released. Max made the Top 100 in the 1990s. By 2003 it was in the Top 50 at #24, and by 2008 it was in the Top 20, where it has stabilised. It is #16 nationally, #18 in New South Wales, #14 in Victoria, #22 in Queensland, #18 in South Australia, #15 in Western Australia, #4 in Tasmania, and #46 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Ted

Ted can either be short for Theodore, or for Edward and other Ed- names. Teds seem to be very popular in comedy, including Father Ted Crilly from Father Ted, Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother, Ted from the Bill and Ted movies, Ted Bullpit in Kingswood Country, and the eponymous bear from the movie Ted. Ted became a celebrity baby name last year, when Leila McKinnon welcomed her son Edmund “Ted” Gyngell, and this year Livinia Nixon called her son Ted as his full name. Ted is #282 in Victoria, so it’s unclear whether Leila started a name trend, or simply joined one. I do see a fair amount of Teds in birth notices though.

Toby

Toby is a medieval contracted form of Tobias; you can see it as either a nickname for Tobias, or the English form of it. The name Toby is one prominent in traditional British popular culture, because of the Toby jug, originally a Staffordshire pottery jug in the shape of a stout seated man, drinking and smoking, dating to the 18^th century. There are at least two theories as why it has been given the name Toby. One is that it is after Sir Toby Belch, from William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a suitably jovial and carousing namesake. Another is that after Henry Elwes, a famous drinker from the 18^th century who was nicknamed Toby Philpot, after a character in the drinking song, The Brown Jug. Another British Toby is Mr Punch’s dog in Punch and Judy puppet shows, traditionally a bull terrier; often in the past, Toby would be a a real trained dog, not just a puppet. Interestingly, The Brown Jug mentions Toby Philpot as enjoying a drink in “the dog days (of high summer)” – maybe one reason why the puppeteer’s dog was named Toby. Toby has charted since the 1960s, when it debuted at #427, and has been in the Top 100 since 2001. It is #78 nationally, #71 in New South Wales, #94 in Victoria, #85 in Queensland, #50 in Tasmania, and #46 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Xander

Xander is short for Alexander. Xander seems to have become common as a full name in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavian before it caught on in the English-speaking world, and as a nickname was used more in Britain than other Anglophone countries. Xander became popularised by the character of Alexander “Xander” Harris in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the alter ego of his creator, Joss Whedon. It may not be a coincidence that Whedon attended school in England for a couple of years. Xander is Buffy’s best male friend, and gradually matures from geeky, insecure sidekick into a smart, effective warrior, who makes a place for himself in the “real world” and is quite successful with the ladies. It was only after the show began in the late 1990s that Xander joined the US Top 1000, or charted at all in the UK. Xander is #159 in Victoria.

POLL RESULT: People’s favourite names were Gus, Toby, and Ted, and their least favourite were Bastian, Xander, and Jonty.

(Picture shows a movie poster for Mad Max)

Requested Name: Penelope

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by A.O. in Requested Names

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

celebrity baby names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, Greek names, mythological names, name history, name meaning, name popularity, US name popularity

Penelope is one of the main characters in Homer’s Odyssey, the epic poem describing the exploits of its hero, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. After spending ten years at the Trojan War in the Iliad, Odysseus spends another ten years journeying home, as his long-suffering wife Penelope waits for him.

While Odysseus gets to sail around the Mediterranean having loads of adventures, listening to siren song, getting seduced by a fan-girl nymph and having an affair with a sorceress, Penelope has to hold the fort in Ithaca, and raise their son (born just before Odysseus went to war) single-handed. To add to her woes, 108 obnoxious suitors crash at her place, in the belief that she now counts as a widow. They try to win her hand, while simultaneously abusing her hospitality, and even threaten the life of her son.

In order to fend off these unwanted admirers, Penelope pretends to be weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law, saying that she can’t remarry until it is finished. The old boy was still alive, but you had to be well-prepared in those days. As a delaying tactic, Penelope pulls out a big chunk of the completed threads before she goes to sleep each night. It takes three years for the suitors to twig that something is amiss, and even then a spitefully tattling servant girl has to point it out to them. Unlike brainbox Odysseus, the suitors weren’t exactly bright.

At last Penelope’s patience is rewarded, when Odysseus returns home. He wins an archery contest by which a suitor was finally to be chosen, then slaughters all the horrible suitors, plus twelve maids and a goatherd who had got a little too cosy with the unwelcome visitors. The population of Ithaca now greatly decreased, Penelope and Odysseus settle down for some quality couple time.

Penelope is not only attractive and clever, she is the epitome of the faithful and devoted wife. Even after many year’s absence, she still loves and yearns for Odysseus so much that it hurts, until she longs to die rather than suffer any more from it. Unlike Helen of Troy, who runs off with Paris, Penelope remains true to her man. She is the perfect fantasy wife – so dazzling that she sends her suitors crazy with lust, yet so chaste that they don’t have a hope of winning her.

The meaning of Penelope isn’t clear, and is most likely pre-Greek. Because Penelope is said to have been rescued from drowning by ducks as an infant, the ancient Greeks understood her name to mean “duck”. Today the Eurasian Widgeon has the scientific name Anas penelope.

It’s now usually thought that Penelope means either “weft face” or “weft peel”, to reflect the story about her weaving – “weft face” suggests a face hidden behind her weaving, while “weft peel” suggests her “peeling” away the weaving that she has done. The name is often simply translated as “weaver”. Penelope’s role as a weaver connects her to Athena, the goddess of weaving, and indeed it is Athena who helps Penelope and Odysseus gain their happy ending.

Penelope has charted in Australia since the 1930s, when it debuted at #346. It peaked in the 1950s at #93, and reached its lowest point in the 1990s at #448. Since then it has been steadily climbing, and is currently #190 in New South Wales and #202 in Victoria.

Penelope has been chosen as a baby name by several celebrities, including Taylor Hanson and Tina Fey, but many Penelope-loving parents went into a tailspin when reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian named her daughter Penelope last year.

Why the sudden Penny-Panic? Because Kourtney’s son is named Mason, and although Mason was already popular and a favourite choice for celebrity baby-namers, it was only after Penelope’s big brother was born that the name Mason suddenly rose, and within two years was the #2 name in the United States, where it remains. Now parents fret that the name Penelope may suffer the same fate.

The question is, should Australian parents join in with this general hand-wringing, or even consciously avoid using Penelope, lest they contribute to an unwanted wave of Penny-Popularity?

Reasons Not to Panic About Penelope

Penelope isn’t as popular here as it is in the United States. In the US, Penelope is #125 and rising, so it seems likely to be soon in the Top 100 there, even had Kourtney chosen a different name for her daughter. We’re presently quite a way off that point.
To put it in perspective, less than 100 babies named Penelope were born last year in New South Wales and Victoria combined. (There may have been as few as 150 in the whole country, probably less). That really doesn’t seem like a big population of Penelopes.
As there are around 5300 primary schools in New South Wales and Victoria, that’s an estimated 0.01 Penelopes per school joining Grade 1 in 2018/2019. Almost none, in other words.
We may not be quite as influenced by the Kardashians as the United States. While the popularity of Mason suddenly jumped in both the US and Australia after the birth of Kourtney Kardashian’s son, in the US it continued zooming to #2, while here it is rising more sedately and is #17 nationally.
The only state or territory where Penelope was in the Top 100 was the tiny ACT – and it dropped out of it last year. Maybe Kourtney spooked them already.

Penelope is gaining in popularity, but it’s been doing so for over a decade, and overall numbers are presently quite low. It’s a pretty, elegant name which was favoured by the English aristocracy for many years, and still has a noble feel to it; it might remind you of Lady Penelope Rich, the inspiration for the name Stella.

Penelope’s mythological namesake is a woman celebrated for her intelligence, skill and character rather than her beauty – a woman of strength and substance. Possible nicknames for Penelope include the cute Penny, popular Poppy, and hip Nell or Nellie.

Thank you to Kathryn for suggesting the name Penelope to be featured on Waltzing More Than Matilda

POLL RESULT: Penelope received an approval rating of 80%, making it one of the most highly regarded names of the year. People saw the name Penelope as beautiful or pretty (20%), intelligent and sophisticated (17%), elaborate but not frilly (13%), and elegant and refined (12%). However, 6% of people believe it is already too popular.

(Painting is of Penelope and the Suitors (1912), by John William Waterhouse)

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	drperegrine on Can Phoebe Complete This …
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	redrover23 on Rua and Rhoa

Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Tag Archives: fictional namesakes

Rare Royal Names for Boys

Rare Royal Names for Girls

Upper Class Baby Names

Celebrity Sibset: Wendy Harmer

Famous Names: Aria and Delta

Boys Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin – Part 2

Girls Names of Australian Aboriginal Origin – Part 2

Waltzing with … Layla

Shortened Names for Boys

Requested Name: Penelope